UP to 75,000 angry demonstrators took to streets across the country yesterday to protest about Government plans for swingeing cuts in the forthcoming Budget.

Rallies in Dublin and seven other centres braved bitter weather conditions to voice their discontent at the planned cutbacks. The protests were organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to allow workers show their support for its 10-point plan for a fairer way to national recovery.

Private sector workers joined nurses, teachers, gardai and other workers in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Sligo, Tullamore and Dundalk to hear union leaders warn of social unrest if the Government continues to look to middle and lower income workers to make savings.

Cork

Protesters numbered 15,000, with scores of off-duty firefighters, dressed in uniform, among the representatives of over 25 different unions and associations in the crowd.

SIPTU's Regional Secretary in Munster, Gene Mealy, told a rally on the Grand Parade that a message needs to be sent to the Government. "You work for us not the other way around. If you want more public funding, then tax the rich."

Treasurer of ICTU, Joe O'Flynn, warned that huge social division and unrest will be created if the Government continues to force all of the adjustments on middle to low income earners and those dependent on social services.

galway

Nurses, teachers, firefighters, postal workers and gardai were prominent among the 6,000 protesters, some of whom travelled through driving wind and rain from parts of Mayo and Roscommon.

IMPACT Assistant General Secretary Padraig Mulligan drew sustained applause as he compared the Government's approach to the economy as akin to that of the "Galway tent golden circle".

Chairperson of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed Anne Fergus demanded that social welfare payments -- particularly payments to young people who could not get work -- be left untouched in the forthcoming Budget.

"Cutting the Christmas bonus is an attack on the family.

"How can Santa come to anyone who has no work?" she asked the crowd.

dundalk

Unions issued a stark warning to the Government, and the Taoiseach in particular, that he would underestimate the feeling of public sector workers "at his peril".

Around 1,500 mainly public sector workers and their supporters applauded a hard hitting and rousing address to the crowd from Isobel Murphy of IMPACT as she accused the Government of "wanting us to pay for somebody else's mistakes".

John King of SIPTU said the property bubble created a false economy and the Government has "prioritised the bailing out of those in the banks and property sector".

Single mum-of-two Donna McDonagh, who travelled from Ardee, said she could not survive if there were any cuts in her social welfare benefits.

"I am here to object to any cuts in it; I have two children aged five months and two years and it's hard enough to survive as it is. If they cut any more I won't be able to."

Cavan county council worker Peter Crosby said: "I have had enough taken off me, I have two children to put through college and a daughter with disabilities where the HSE has cut funding to the workshop she goes to by 3pc."

"We are all fed up with the current Government," said Margaret Reilly, a HSE worker in Drogheda.

She added: "Our hospitals are Third World standard. Look how the Government has treated the sick who are an easy target."

limerick

Unprecedented low morale among gardai was highlighted at the Limerick protest event where 5,000 people braved a bitterly cold day to express their discontent at Government cuts.

Insp Seamus Gallagher, of Henry Street garda station, who is chairman of the Limerick Branch of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, said: "In my 38 years working, without doubt, I have never seen morale as low amongst the gardai as it is now."

"I'm very angry -- angry at the political system in Ireland. I see taxpayers' money being squandered and no accountability. I am very bitter about this," he said.

SIPTU Branch Organiser Ger Kennedy said: "There is deep anger through the public and private sector about how the economy is being handled at this time," he said.

Tullamore

About 4,000 public and private sector union members took to the streets of Tullamore, where TEEU General Secretary, Eamon Devoy predicted "anarchy" and advocated the use of "physical force" to prevent banks repossessing homes if reforms are not made.

"Unless we get some reform, we are going to have to take physical action to prevent these people being put out of their homes," he told protesters, who were led through the town by a lone female piper.

Newly redundant private sector workers from companies such as Coca-Cola and Waterford Crystal joined public sector employees for a 8,000 strong march in Waterford, which attracted people from Kilkenny, south Tipperary and Wexford.

TEEU shop steward David Dunne, an employee of the Honeywell car component business which shed about 150 jobs recently, said that it was important for all workers to come out in solidarity with their colleagues.

"It's a great day for workers," he said. "The problem is that we can't cut our way out of this recession. We need to make our voices heard loud, and stick together."

sligo

In Sligo, a leaden sky hung over 4,000 demonstrators but, as if in tune with the defiant mood of the crowd, the rain held off until just after their 90-minute protest finished yesterday.

Two rivers of people from both public and private sectors, and from as far away as Inishowen in Donegal, west Cavan, North Roscommon and North Mayo, set out from different parts of the town and converged on a footbridge spanning the Garavogue before continuing to the town centre.

SIPTU regional organiser John McCarrick was loudly cheered when he said: "Everybody sees that the Government is putting €54bn into NAMA, and there is no money for job creation.

"The Congress of Trade Unions looked for €1bn to protect jobs and create jobs and what did we get? We got €250m offered."

He claimed the demos around Ireland were the start of the road towards forcing the Government to change its politics of squeezing workers.

- BRIAN MCDONALD

Irish Independent